flowerbug
Garden Master
yeah, they wouldn't even bother bailing/rolling it up. we see that around here at times.
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- Thread starter Beekissed
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yeah, they wouldn't even bother bailing/rolling it up. we see that around here at times.
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- #1,412
Beekissed
Garden Master
Folks, I just keep praising God I didn't get hay this year!!! Again, He truly knows best! How else would I know just how wonderful my soil is right now? At least, the top 6 in. or so, but that's all I need!!! Under that is still clay but it's a bit softer and darker as well where the two types of dirt merge...those worms are in abundance and working all the while to pull my mulch down into the clay! But, they are pushing their little castings right up into my top layer, which is a huge blessing!
This soil is so black and rich I'm praising God with every turn of the Mantis tines, how easily it moves through this softness and how deep it is for planting now!
Today I got to use my Rogue hoe also and it was delightful!!! Didn't get to use it all last year but today I cut through clumps of grass growing in the garden, mopped up a bunch of little weed seedlings no bigger than a baby's pinky nail. And that's all the effort it took, just a shoving through that rich blackness to erase all those little patches of green and pulling it back...gently and easily. LOVE that hoe!
Removed all the clumps of garlic a sweet gardener sent me from Maine a few years back and separated them all into their individual plant, tilled up that whole space after adding some litter from the coop, then made a bed, flattened it off and replanted all those with good spacing...was shocked at just how many there were! They were growing in clumps up under the landscaping timber that's at the base of the fence, in hard packed soils....I've been neglecting them these past few years. Not this year...it's a brand new day! They got fed and bedded, watered into their new and improved home and we'll see how they do now. This year I'm going to eat some scapes but will again let some go to seed so that I can make another bed of garlic this fall. Tucked a little hay around the bed to keep the weeds from growing in between them and the fence and sprinkled a little more hay over the new bed to keep in the moisture.
Transplanted old strawberry plants~not sure if I should but I'm winging it here...never really grew strawberries before~to the rhubarb/asparagus/strawberry bed. Waiting for two more existing asparagus to spear and be done so I can move them there as well. They too are trying to grow under the bottom timbers in the worst of the soil...maybe it's all richer on the other side of the fence.
Dug up lemon balm starts and planted them by the roses and one by the garden gate. May split off that whole plant and plant half in the front flower beds as well. It's the one perennial that has excelled and reproduced around here...I need to share it all over!
So, righted all the wrongs in the garden, placed the spare coop litter on the place where I'll be planting peppers later and am ready to get back to the broody pen remake. Need to move one of those broodies tonight!
This soil is so black and rich I'm praising God with every turn of the Mantis tines, how easily it moves through this softness and how deep it is for planting now!
Today I got to use my Rogue hoe also and it was delightful!!! Didn't get to use it all last year but today I cut through clumps of grass growing in the garden, mopped up a bunch of little weed seedlings no bigger than a baby's pinky nail. And that's all the effort it took, just a shoving through that rich blackness to erase all those little patches of green and pulling it back...gently and easily. LOVE that hoe!
Removed all the clumps of garlic a sweet gardener sent me from Maine a few years back and separated them all into their individual plant, tilled up that whole space after adding some litter from the coop, then made a bed, flattened it off and replanted all those with good spacing...was shocked at just how many there were! They were growing in clumps up under the landscaping timber that's at the base of the fence, in hard packed soils....I've been neglecting them these past few years. Not this year...it's a brand new day! They got fed and bedded, watered into their new and improved home and we'll see how they do now. This year I'm going to eat some scapes but will again let some go to seed so that I can make another bed of garlic this fall. Tucked a little hay around the bed to keep the weeds from growing in between them and the fence and sprinkled a little more hay over the new bed to keep in the moisture.
Transplanted old strawberry plants~not sure if I should but I'm winging it here...never really grew strawberries before~to the rhubarb/asparagus/strawberry bed. Waiting for two more existing asparagus to spear and be done so I can move them there as well. They too are trying to grow under the bottom timbers in the worst of the soil...maybe it's all richer on the other side of the fence.
Dug up lemon balm starts and planted them by the roses and one by the garden gate. May split off that whole plant and plant half in the front flower beds as well. It's the one perennial that has excelled and reproduced around here...I need to share it all over!
So, righted all the wrongs in the garden, placed the spare coop litter on the place where I'll be planting peppers later and am ready to get back to the broody pen remake. Need to move one of those broodies tonight!
henless
Garden Addicted
Oh Bee how wonderful! I know you talk about how awful your soil is. I'm so glad the hay from last year has broken down so well. What a Godsend for you this year as you garden. 
I moved my strawberries early this year. Took them out of the bed and put them in containers. They are doing great!
I moved my strawberries early this year. Took them out of the bed and put them in containers. They are doing great!
- Thread starter
- #1,414
Beekissed
Garden Master
Those are beautiful, Hen!!! I hope mine look as full and lovely by the time to bear this year! Right now they are looking better than they ever had.
- Thread starter
- #1,415
Beekissed
Garden Master
Picked three tender spears of asparagus from the garden this morning and had them with breakfast. MUCH more tender and flavorful than commercially grown asparagus, I'll say that about them! Sooooooo good!!!!
Hope to get another lettuce and greens bed in today, put sides on my raised beds and start to fill in the spuds(they are all poking their heads out of the hilled up row) bed with leaves and hay~but no chicken litter...learned my lesson on that. Hope to fill in the rest of the rhubarb bed will chicken litter and such.
Also need to get some trellising up for the sugar snap peas.
Hope to get another lettuce and greens bed in today, put sides on my raised beds and start to fill in the spuds(they are all poking their heads out of the hilled up row) bed with leaves and hay~but no chicken litter...learned my lesson on that. Hope to fill in the rest of the rhubarb bed will chicken litter and such.
Also need to get some trellising up for the sugar snap peas.
- Thread starter
- #1,416
Beekissed
Garden Master
Funny thing this year in the garden, where I didn't have any hay to cover it this season...before I started with applying hay there, what would grow in the garden was the same kind of weed, like a carpet, though I can't remember the name of it now. Millions of tiny weeds of the same kind.
This season I'm also seeing green starting to cover the garden...but it's not weedlings. It's clover! Excellent for tilling into the soil when I do so and I don't mind it growing in the pathways at all.
This season I'm also seeing green starting to cover the garden...but it's not weedlings. It's clover! Excellent for tilling into the soil when I do so and I don't mind it growing in the pathways at all.
flowerbug
Garden Master
chop it back a few times a season and let the worms get to it and you'll have fantastic garden soil under those pathways in a few years.
i did that in the NE garden for 5yrs which is mostly clay and that soil out there is so nice now. i'm adding fireplace ashes (along with any other organic materials i can find or that are left over from the gardens) as my friends bring them to me each year so that helps break up the clay some along with the black carbon cinders. it's coming along. gonna get some beans going in part of it this year to finally get some production. i leave a few alfalfa plants here or there as they are good bug refuge plants for the winter.
Smart Red
Garden Master
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Love the chix pix!
I'm down to two layers, but the feed store has chicks calling my name.
this would be a perfect time to pick some up as I am otherwise out of commission for the next four to six weeks.
I'm down to two layers, but the feed store has chicks calling my name.
this would be a perfect time to pick some up as I am otherwise out of commission for the next four to six weeks.
Smart Red
Garden Master
- Joined
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Asparagus! I'll have to check my bed after our rain stops. love, love, love that stuff. Unfortunately, I turned Gypsy on to that veggie so I'm fighting to get my share.
hope you recover well or enjoy your little fuzzballs! 
